Giant Shark vs Mega Octopus - 18/10/2016

With the Mermaid determined to get a few more twinset dives under her belt before heading up to Scapa for a liveaboard with her teckie other half, we headed to Loch Long and Conger Alley for a couple of day dives.

It was to be two dives defined by two creatures often featured in B-rate horror movies including Giant Shark vs Mega Octopus. However, neither encounter was as one would expect in the world of bad cinema.

The first dive saw us head down to 25m. While en route down the Mermaid was scanning with her torch when I caught a glimpse of the octopus. I was surprised at first, I've never seen one in Scotland during the day. I signalled to Avril and we stopped to watch this deep sea monster before moving on to enjoy the congers, wrasse, lobsters etc.

The journey back was a little eventful with the Mermaid being slightly under weighted. I'd gone down a little overweighted to compensate, which proved to be useful as I held her down on the safety stop. That's what buddies are for.

The second dive saw us go in looking for an illusive firework anemone, but instead turned up a gentle catshark along with the usual reef life.

Great fun.

Just hanging around

Leaving

Smurf

Conger Eel

Catshark

The Lion's King - 03/06/2014

The Usual Suspects

The Mermaid had asked the Zookeeper and I if we wanted to dive on Tuesday. Naturally, with pleasing weather and some flexi-time from work I was unlikely to say no. As per usual we met at the Sealife centre and headed north from there.

Our destination was to be Drishaig Reef, Loch Fyne a site that none of us had ever dived. The dive guide made it seem quite a sedate affair (it was) but we were hoping for Firework Anemones and maybe some other interesting critters.

As always when diving with the potent combination of the Zookeeper and the Mermaid you have to keep your wits about you - you never know when you're going to get snapped. As such, I kept my trademark look - Smoulder™ - on at all times. I can be seen Smouldering™ in almost every shot. It's safe to say that antics weren't in short supply.

We kitted up in a relatively midgie free environment  entered the water and headed straight down to 29 metres turned left and pottered about. Firework anemones by the bucket load. It's a great site if you want photograph them. Moving back to the shallows, there was the usual assortment of life including dabs, squat lobsters and brittle stars. 

Team Biff (1)

Team Biff (2)

The dive highlight for me was as we reached around 5m at the end of the dive. The sunlight streaming down into the seaweed made it seem almost tropical, then as I looked up I saw something I haven't seen since my earliest days of diving - even then, back in those days I was too scared to approach it - a lion's mane jellyfish. It wasn't a massive one, but it's tentacles were easily 2m in length. I swam around it being careful not to get stung. It was beautiful. 

Heading in at Drishaig

Once out of the water we quickly dekitted as the midgies were massing and we jumped in cars back towards Conger Alley on Loch Long. We wanted to see if we could find the octopus again and the Zookeeper had some old squid for luring out the the conger eels.

Once there we encountered the full wrath of the Highland Midge -  it was unpleasant - so quickly kitted up and entered the water. The visibility was very poor and not a patch on the 5-7m we had encountered at Loch Fyne. I estimate that in the first 10m it was probably less than 1m. However, by the time we reached our destination (20m) although it was pitch black, the visibility was around 4m or as far as your torch could penetrate. It was also noticeably colder. 

We lured out a conger and took some pics before setting off in search of Paul the Octopus. We found him lurking in his usual place. I never took any pictures, but the Zookeeper force fed him a camera lens - it doesn't pay to be shy in this game.

At this stage the Mermaid of Kilmarnock signalled that she was four minutes from deco. We safely headed up, and out, to the waiting ravenous horde and bolted to McDs for a late night hot chocolate.

Another hour and half of diving in the bag.

Firework Anemone 1

Firework Anemone 2

Firework Anemone 3

Firework Anemone 4

Safety Stop

Lion's Mane 1

Lion's Mane 2

Seaweed

Bloody Henry

Sea Cucumber

Filming

Lured out

Octopus by Laura

Route 66 - 26/05/2014

Tonight myself, the Zookeeper and Fast Ed had decided to dive from Conger Alley all the way down the road to the entry point for Twin Piers in Loch Long. It was a brilliant night for diving -  flat calm sea, the tide was out and was returning in the direction we were heading.

We parked the cars at Twin Piers and kitted up before walking the 400m to Conger Alley.

We dived down to the reef, maxing out at a reasonable 22m, and began working our way up the reef.

As regular reader will know, I dived this site three times back in January. Each time was quite a different experience but it has always provided either seal or conger eel encounters with other smaller critters for company. Today I was hoping to see an octopus. Laura had spotted and pointed one out to me on a previous dive, but I hadn't seen one before and between the rocks couldn't even figure out what I was meant to be looking at.

Our first encounter was a relatively shy conger eel who was not prepared to be coaxed out. We spent a fair bit of time trying and at 22m this meant that I was using more air than I was planning to at this depth. 

As we worked our way up the reef it was then my turn to spot something. At first I thought it was a large cuttlefish, then it dawned on me what I was looking for. I signalled Laura and as I looked back it had darted back into a crack between the rocks. There was no doubt I had just spotted a curled or lesser octopus.

Continuing on we found a second, larger conger eel that was also far more active in its hole.The Zookeeper gave me a horse mussel, which I presumed was for sacrificial purposes. I sliced it open with my Scubapro Mako and tossed it towards the conger hole. The conger obviously appreciated the 'amuse bouche' because it was sucked in without a second thought.

We then continued up and off the reef to towards Twin Piers. My air had been heavily depleted. I already had serious doubts about making it the 400m. Still the tide was with us, and even if we failed the surface swim would be a laugh. Ed naturally had bucket loads of air and the Zookeeper wouldn't be too far behind me. 

At one point I signalled to Ed to say I only had 40 bar and he signalled back with two fingers. I was sure he'd have more than 20 bar. Afterall, he dives on a 300 psi 12 litre tank as opposed to the 232 that I use.

In the end, I surfaced with a hefty 10 bar after 66 minutes. We were still 200m away from the piers, but the sun was out - as was a rainbow - and it was time for a carry-on as we completed the route. Then the blog title came to me, Route 66. Now, haven't I heard that somewhere before?

Shy Conger

Curled Octopus hidden between the crack

Bloody Henry

Goldsinny

Alien Facehugger

Laura says hello

How far we came